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Angry Postecoglou bakes Victory effort

Guy Hand

Accusing his players of wanting a "comfortable afternoon's football", furious Melbourne Victory coach Ange Postecoglou has promised them a most uncomfortable week ahead.

Postecoglou was livid at his team's effort in their 3-2 A-League loss to Perth Glory at AAMI Park on Saturday night in a match effectively a dead rubber for the finals-bound Victory.

Even without key players Archie Thompson, Mark Milligan and Marco Rojas on international duty, Postecoglou offered no excuses - and warned his players needed to be finding form ahead of finals, not switching off and coasting.

"If we play like that (in finals) we'll lose. It's as simple as that," Postecoglou said.

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"It's up to us to address that during the week and make sure we do better next week.

"We get to work tomorrow and make sure we present ourselves in a better manner next week."

The Victory were particularly pedestrian in the opening 45 minutes, and despite taking a 13th minute lead through Adrian Leijer, were outplayed for most of the rest of the match.

Clearly Postecoglou, who has spent the past three years rarely tasting defeat while coaching back-to-back champions Brisbane Roar and the high-flying Victory, doesn't enjoy it.

And he has promised his players' efforts will be examined in detail over the next week - saying Victory on his watch will not accept mediocrity.

"You can't ignore it. I'm not going to ignore it," he said.

"It's not about today. It's not about next week. It's about standards at this football club.

"There are standards we're going to set that we're not going to compromise on.

"There were too many players who wanted a comfortable afternoon of football. And that's not going to happen at this football club. I won't accept it."

In his first hitout in five weeks, Victory midfielder Marcos Flores lasted less than an hour before going off with cramp.

But Postecoglou is confident that was his only problem - not a recurrence of the quadriceps and back problems which have dogged him of late.